The Long and Winding Road – Beatles

Phil Spector added strings and a choir to the 1969-recorded base track made by the Beatles and Billy Preston and, in McCartney’s estimation, destroyed his song

This was the final Beatles #1 hit

McCartney wrote the song in 1968 while on holiday at his farm in Scotland

The song’s inspiration is a 31 mile road along the Scottish coast

The most recent Beatles single to be released was ‘Real Love’ in 1996, in which McCartney, Ringo Starr and Harrison overdubbed vocals and instruments onto a John Lennon demo which he had recorded in 1977

Later recorded by Ray Charles, Cher, Barry Manilow, Bill Medley, George Benson and Gladys Knight & the Pips